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Many people are able to recognize the personality traits of the person they are talking to by their facial features. Experts in non-verbal communication can do this even with a photograph. But is it possible to teach artificial intelligence to do the same?

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, people around the world have faced an unprecedented crisis. The cataclysm has impacted Russia as well. Who will better deal the hardships—experienced baby boomers, Gen Xers who survived the 1990s, or Gen Yers who have had an easy life?

In lockdowns, why do some people stay home, while others violate the quarantine rules and go out for picnics in the park? Behavioural economics may provide the answer to this question. Oksana Zinchenko, a Research Fellow of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, explains how we can predict people’s behaviour with game theory.

Article

Population dynamics with moderate tails of the underlying random walk

Symmetric random walks in $R^d$ and $Z^d$ are considered. It is assumed that the jump distribution density has moderate tails, i.e., several density moments are finite, including the second one. The global (for all $x$ and $t$) asymptotic behavior at infinity of the transition probability (fundamental solution of the corresponding parabolic convolution operator) is found. Front propagation of ecological waves in the corresponding population dynamics models is described.

This note states several results on the exponential functionals of the Brownian motion and their approximations by Markov chains. Starting from M.Yor, such functionals were studied in mathematical finance. At the same time, they play a significant role in different settings: the analysis of diffusions on the class of solvable Lie groups, in particular on the group of (2 X 2) upper triangular matrices, with positive diagonal elements. The discrete random walks cannot properly describe the local structure of diffusion. However, instead of the usual local limit theorem (which is not applicable) its weaker form, namely quasi-local form is given.

According to the currently prevalent theory, hippocampal formation constructs and maintains cognitive spatial maps. Most of the experimental evidence for this theory comes from the studies on navigation in laboratory rats and mice, typically male animals. While these animals exhibit a rich repertoire of behaviors associated with navigation, including locomotion, head movements, whisking, sniffing, raring and scent marking, the contribution of these behavioral patterns to hippocampal activity has not been sufficiently studied. Instead, many publications have considered animal position in space as the single variable that affects the firing of hippocampal place cells and entorhinal grid cells. Here we argue that future work should focus on a more detailed examination of different behaviors exhibited during navigation in order to interpret the cause of spatial tuning in hippocampal neurons. As a step in this direction, we have analyzed data from two datasets, shared online, containing recordings from rats navigating in square and round arenas. Our analyses revealed structured, grid-like navigation patterns, evident from the spatial maps of animal position, velocity and acceleration. Moreover, grid cells available in the datasets exhibited the same spatial periodicity as the navigation parameters. These findings cast doubt on the cognitive-map interpretation of grid cells, since they suggest that neuronal spatial patterns could be caused by behaviors associated with navigation instead of representing a hierarchically high spatial map. Additionally, we speculate that scent marks left by navigating animals could contribute to neuronal responses while rats and mice sniff their environment.

This paper is concerned with Random walk approximations of the
Brownian motion on the Affine group Aff(R). We are in particular interested
in the case where the innovations are discrete. In this framework, the return
probabilities of the walk have fractional exponential decay in large time, as
opposed to the polynomial one of the continuous object. We prove that in
tegrating those return probabilities on a suitable neighborhood of the origin,
the expected polynomial decay is restored. This is what we call a Quasi-local
theorem.

We present a comparative study of several algorithms for an in-plane random walk with a variable step. The goal is to check the efficiency of the algorithm in the case where the random walk terminates at some boundary. We recently found that a finite step of the random walk produces a bias in the hitting probability and this bias vanishes in the limit of an infinitesimal step. Therefore, it is important to know how a change in the step size of the random walk influences the performance of simulations. We propose an algorithm with the most effective procedure for the step-length-change protocol.

We present a comparative study of several algorithms for an in-plane random walk with a variable step. The goal is to check the efficiency of the algorithm in case where the random walk terminates at some boundary. We recently found that a finite step of the random walk produces a bias in the hitting probability and this bias vanishes in the limit of an infinitesimal step. Therefore, it is important to know how a change in the step size of the random walk influences the performance of simulations. We propose an algorithm with the most effective procedure for the step-length-change protocol.

Nowadays the random search became a widespread and effective tool for solving different complex optimization and adaptation problems. In this work, the problem of an average duration of a random search for one object by another is regarded, depending on various factors on a square field. The problem solution was carried out by holding total experiment with 4 factors and orthogonal plan with 54 lines. Within each line, the initial conditions and the cellular automaton transition rules were simulated and the duration of the search for one object by another was measured. As a result, the regression model of average duration of a random search for an object depending on the four factors considered, specifying the initial positions of two objects, the conditions of their movement and detection is constructed. The most significant factors among the factors considered in the work that determine the average search time are determined. An interpretation is carried out in the problem of random search for an object from the constructed model.The important result of the work is that the qualitative and quantitative influence of initial positions of objects, the size of the lattice and the transition rules on the average duration of search is revealed by means of model obtained. It is shown that the initial neighborhood of objects on the lattice does not guarantee a quick search, if each of them moves. In addition, it is quantitatively estimated how many times the average time of searching for an object can increase or decrease with increasing the speed of the searching object by 1 unit, and also with increasing the field size by 1 unit, with different initial positions of the two objects. The exponential nature of the growth in the number of steps for searching for an object with an increase in the lattice size for other fixed factors is revealed. The conditions for the greatest increase in the average search duration are found: the maximum distance of objects in combination with the immobility of one of them when the field size is changed by 1 unit. (that is, for example, with 4x4 at 5x5) can increase the average search duration in e^1,69≈5,42. The task presented in the work may be relevant from the point of view of application both in the landmark for ensuring the security of the state, and, for example, in the theory of mass service.

This paper is concerned with Random walk approximations of the Brownian motion on the Affine group Aff(R). We are in particular interested in the case where the innovations are discrete. In this framework, the return probability of the walk have fractional exponential decay in large time, as opposed to the polynomial one of the continuous object. We prove that integrating those return probabilities on a suitable neighborhood of the origin, the expected polynomial decay is restored. This is what we call a Quasi-local theorem.

We use the characterization of distribution symmetry in terms of order statistics in order to obtain new tests of symmetry based on U-empirical distribution functions. We calculate their limiting distributions and large deviations and explore their local Bahadur efficiency against location alternatives which turns out to be rather high.

Let k be a field of characteristic zero, let G be a connected reductive algebraic group
over k and let g be its Lie algebra. Let k(G), respectively, k(g), be the field of k-
rational functions on G, respectively, g. The conjugation action of G on itself induces
the adjoint action of G on g. We investigate the question whether or not the field
extensions k(G)/k(G)^G and k(g)/k(g)^G are purely transcendental. We show that the
answer is the same for k(G)/k(G)^G and k(g)/k(g)^G, and reduce the problem to the
case where G is simple. For simple groups we show that the answer is positive if G is
split of type A_n or C_n, and negative for groups of other types, except possibly G_2. A
key ingredient in the proof of the negative result is a recent formula for the unramified
Brauer group of a homogeneous space with connected stabilizers. As a byproduct of
our investigation we give an affirmative answer to a question of Grothendieck about the
existence of a rational section of the categorical quotient morphism for the conjugating
action of G on itself.

This proceedings publication is a compilation of selected contributions from the “Third International Conference on the Dynamics of Information Systems” which took place at the University of Florida, Gainesville, February 16–18, 2011. The purpose of this conference was to bring together scientists and engineers from industry, government, and academia in order to exchange new discoveries and results in a broad range of topics relevant to the theory and practice of dynamics of information systems. Dynamics of Information Systems: Mathematical Foundation presents state-of-the art research and is intended for graduate students and researchers interested in some of the most recent discoveries in information theory and dynamical systems. Scientists in other disciplines may also benefit from the applications of new developments to their own area of study.

We obtain a partial solution of the problem on the growth of the norms of exponential functions with a continuous phase in the Wiener algebra. The problem was posed by J.-P. Kahane at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Stockholm in 1962. He conjectured that (for a nonlinear phase) one can not achieve the growth slower than the logarithm of the frequency. Though the conjecture is still not confirmed, the author obtained first nontrivial results.

We give an explicit formula for a quasi-isomorphism between the operads Hycomm (the homology of the moduli space of stable genus 0 curves) and BV/Δ (the homotopy quotient of Batalin-Vilkovisky operad by the BV-operator). In other words we derive an equivalence of Hycomm-algebras and BV-algebras enhanced with a homotopy that trivializes the BV-operator. These formulas are given in terms of the Givental graphs, and are proved in two different ways. One proof uses the Givental group action, and the other proof goes through a chain of explicit formulas on resolutions of Hycomm and BV. The second approach gives, in particular, a homological explanation of the Givental group action on Hycomm-algebras.

Let G be a connected semisimple algebraic group over an algebraically closed field k. In 1965 Steinberg proved that if G is simply connected, then in G there exists a
closed irreducible cross-section of the set of closures of regular conjugacy classes. We prove
that in arbitrary G such a cross-section exists if and only if the universal covering isogeny
Ĝ → G is bijective; this answers Grothendieck's question cited in the epigraph. In
particular, for char k = 0, the converse to Steinberg's theorem holds. The existence of a
cross-section in G implies, at least for char k = 0, that the algebra k[G]G of class functions
on G is generated by rk G elements. We describe, for arbitrary G, a minimal generating
set of k[G]G and that of the representation ring of G and answer two Grothendieck's
questions on constructing generating sets of k[G]G. We prove the existence of a rational
(i.e., local) section of the quotient morphism for arbitrary G and the existence of a rational
cross-section in G (for char k = 0, this has been proved earlier); this answers the other
question cited in the epigraph. We also prove that the existence of a rational section
is equivalent to the existence of a rational W-equivariant map T- - - >G/T where T is a
maximal torus of G and W the Weyl group.